Nigerians ‘attack’ Ben Bruce over Canadian doctors’ salary tweet

Some Nigerians have verbally attacked a senator, Ben Murray-Bruce (PDP, Bayelsa), who appeared so impressed by Canadian doctors rejecting a pay raise, that he compared them to their Nigerian counterparts.

Mr. Murray-Bruce had taken to his official Twitter page to call on the Nigerian government to pay attention to Nigerian doctors who protest for not being paid enough.

A few days ago, more than 500 doctors and residents in Canada, as well as over 150 medical students, signed a public letter protesting their own pay raises, CNBC reported.

“We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” the letter said.

The group also said they are offended that they would receive raises when nurses and patients ”are struggling”.

In his tweet, Mr. Murray-Bruce said, “At a time Canadian doctors are protesting that they are being paid too much (your eyes don’t deceive you), doctors in Nigeria are on strike for not being paid enough.

“We can’t pay our doctors well, but we can budget ?1.1 billion to clean a government office. Which way Nigeria?”

Nigerians, obviously still upset after the recent revelation that senators are receiving N13.5 million monthly as “running cost”, urged Mr. Murray-Bruce to emulate the Canadian doctors.

The revelation of the pay package, which was made by Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central), has stirred up mixed reaction among the Nigerians in the country.

In an interview with TheNews, Mr. Sani said that the ”running cost does not include a N700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances which they also receive”.

He explained that though there is no specification on what the funds was meant for, each lawmaker is mandated to provide receipts to back up their expenses.